Even after the call to be cautious when electing new School Governing Body members by various officials, including Gauteng Education and Youth Development MEC, Matome Chiloane, elections are not going accordingly and are full of controversy at some schools in the province.
The many reasons why SGBs are an important structure of the schooling system, have been carried across various messages in campaigns by the Department of Basic Education, provincial departments and other stakeholders within the sector. These include, but are not limited to, the fact that SGBs are there to ensure the school runs smoothly and efficiently and they are critical to improving the school’s quality of education. They instil good governance and ensure schools serve the interest of the community and meet expectations of parents, learners, teachers and all who are involved.
Although this is known, some people who aspire to be part of the SGB, do so with wrong intentions.
Take Siphethu Primary School in Gauteng’s East Rand for instance. It is alleged that four of its newly elected SGB members have only joined the structure with the intention to drive issues of tribalism. Some parents have also accused the school’s Principal of wanting to do-away with the IsiNdebele Home Language. This was after they were allegedly misled in this regard by an IsiNdebele educator at the school.
Another incident happened when the school first convened its SGB elections on Sunday, 10 March 2024. The Curriculum reporter, heard and saw a parent influencing others on who to vote for. This and the fact that a quorum of 15% of parents was not met, meant the elections needed to be postponed.
“The elections guidelines state that a quorum of 15% of the parents on the voters’ roll is needed for the nomination and election meeting to proceed. It is a disappointment seeing that the attendance from parents for such an important event is so low,” the School Electoral Officer, Principal BGN Letsoele explained.
According to Chief Director for Planning and Implementation Support at the DBE, James Ndlebe, irregularities also happen during the national elections.
“People are allowed to campaign for votes and influence others on who to vote for, which might not be achieved because the final decision lies with an individual and his/her ballot paper,” Ndlebe said.
Parents returned for elections on Sunday ,17 March 2024 and quorum was still not reached, however, six SGB members were elected.
In a recent interview with SABC radio station, Ikwekwezi FM , the school’s former SGB Chairperson, Bafana Nkosi, explained that IsiNdebele Home Language is being taught at the school and that the matter of discontinuing the language was raised after concerns that IsiNdebele learners did not reach the minimum required number of learners per class.
The newly elected SGB members who are accused of joining the structure with ill intentions did not comment when approached by The Curriculum.